On a recent webinar hosted by Sourcing Journal, Bold Metrics' Vice President of Product Strategy & Partnerships, Jeff Mergy, and Pact clothing company's CFO and Head of Operations, Drew Cook, spent some time talking about why sizing is such a big issue in apparel, how Pact is using Bold Metrics' AI sizing solutions to solve their sizing challenges, and what results Pact is having after implementing Bold Metrics for just over two months.
Pact aims to increase customer confidence in selecting the right fit to offer a more personalized shopping experience, increase their conversion, and see a significant decrease in returns due to sizing uncertainty.
"The first thing they're [consumers] going to look at when they get something is fit. Fit and style are the top two," Cook said. "And so consumers have a ton of options today — especially in the direct-to-consumer world — from which brands they're going to buy from. If you don't nail fit, or at least tell them exactly what it's going to be and they can buy accordingly, then you're not going to retain customers. You're going to pay to acquire them, they're going to return the products, and they're never going to come back."
"Fit is critical across the apparel universe, regardless of whether you're making casual or custom, tailored outfits."
- Drew Cook
CFO and Head of Operations of Pact
Pact had considered using and evaluated sizing solutions in the past, but were hesitant to add another step to the purchasing process. Cook explained the potential risk of adding another hurdle to the purchasing funnel, saying that when they had looked at platforms in the past it seemed that the trade-off of asking customers to take additional steps didn't seem worth it.
"What really stood out about Bold Metrics was the simplicity of the questions," Cook shared. "It's four questions, it's things you know off the top of your head, and it's things that are easy and don't feel too personal to input. With doing those and getting an output for a suggested size, the tech integration of automatically selecting that size on your product page, and then the quick add to cart, it became something for us that we actually viewed as a conversion optimizer, not something that would stand in the way."
Pact implemented Bold Metrics' Smart Size Chart in mid-May 2023 and is already seeing positive results. Watch the short clip below as Drew talks about the conversion and AOV lifts in customers who use the technology vs. those who don't:
The company should see the impact in returns in the coming months.
Jeff and Drew also discussed the importance of incorporating fit preferences (not just size recommendations), the positive business impacts of improving sizing, and more. (Don't miss the quick demo of how the Smart Size Chart works in the beginning!)
Watch the entire webinar on-demand.